This invention relates to the field of integrated semiconductor memories, and in particular to the structure of a very large dynamic random access memory (DRAM).
A semiconductor DRAM is typically comprised of parallel pairs of bitlines crossing wordlines. A charge storage cell is located adjacent intersections of the bitlines and wordlines, each cell being comprised of a charge storage capacitor connected for access to a bitline through a cell access field effect transistor (FET), which FET is enabled from a wordline. Each bitline pair is connected to a sense amplifier, which is connected via an access transistor, enabled by a Y-decoder, to a databus. The databuses are located on the chip in parallel to the wordlines and parallel to a strip of associated sense amplifiers, and orthogonal to the bitlines. Read and write amplifiers are connected to the databuses.
As the capacity of DRAMs increases, it becomes increasingly important to minimize the size of the chip in which it is integrated, in order to increase yields and to decrease the cost per bit of the DRAMs.
The present invention is a DRAM structure which significantly decreases the physical space used on a chip for a given size of DRAM, and at the same time provides a structure that can accommodate a significantly increased memory capacity for a given chip size. It can provide wider data buses providing greater bandwidth which is useful for application specific memories (ASMs) or embedded memories in ASIC devices. In such an application a wide databus could be used directly without further decoding, since data need not go off-chip which is limited by the number of pins on an integrated circuit chip package. The present invention avoids the requirement for separate databuses for each strip of sense amplifiers, but instead connects two or more sense amplifiers in different strips to primary databus pairs, and the databus pairs, through databus sense amplifiers, to a secondary databus which preferably runs in parallel to columns of the DRAM. Strips of bit line sense amplifiers are connected to the primary databus through access FETs which are enabled by a column array select signal.
The databus sense amplifiers are connected to the secondary databus by second access transistors, which may be enabled by Y-decoders. Indeed additional databus sense amplifiers may be connected in parallel through isolation FETs to the primary databuses and to the second access transistors. With enabling or inhibiting of the isolation FETs, selectable columns of databus sense amplifiers may be enabled, whereby they may be used as page caches, storing pages of databits for writing to or having been read from columns of storage cells.
Thus the primary databuses are shared among many arrays. Since plural parallel databuses each associated with a column of bit line sense amplifiers are not required, significant chip space is saved. The databus sense amplifiers can serve as caches, and in the plural parallel databus sense amplifier embodiment, the databus sense amplifiers can hold multiple pages of data in cache.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, a DRAM is comprised of an array of bitline sense amplifiers, columns of said bitline sense amplifiers being selectable by array select signals for application of charge between a selected column of bitline sense amplifiers and corresponding primary databus pairs, whereby each row of bitline sense amplifiers shares the same primary databus pair, and further comprising databus sense amplifiers for application of charge between a databus pair and a secondary databus.
In accordance with another embodiment, the DRAM described above further includes plural databus sense amplifiers connected in parallel through isolation apparatus to each primary databus pair and apparatus for enabling and inhibiting columns of the plural databus sense amplifiers together to connect and disconnect the columns of the plural databus sense amplifiers to corresponding databus pairs, whereby selectable columns of the plural sense amplifiers may be connected to the primary databus pairs.
In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) is comprised of pairs of bitlines, each pair being connected to a bit line sense amplifier, wordlines crossing the bitline pairs forming an array, charge storage cells connected to the bitlines, each having an enable input connected to a wordline, the bit line sense amplifiers being connected in an array, pairs of primary databuses being connected through first access transistors to plural corresponding bit line sense amplifiers in each row of the array, apparatus for enabling columns of the first access transistors, databus sense amplifiers each connected to a corresponding data bus pair, a secondary databus, the secondary databus being connected through second access transistors to the databus sense amplifiers, and apparatus for enabling the second access transistors, whereby each primary databus pair may be shared by plural sense amplifiers in a corresponding row of the array and the secondary databus may be shared by plural primary databus pairs.
In accordance with another embodiment, the DRAM described above further includes plural databus sense amplifiers connected in parallel through isolation apparatus to each primary databus pair and to the second access transistors, and apparatus for enabling and inhibiting columns of the plural databus sense amplifiers to connect and disconnect the columns of the plural databus sense amplifiers together to corresponding databus pairs, whereby columns of the plural sense amplifiers may be connected to and sense the corresponding databus pairs.